Citrix states in their article: CTX089874

CTX089874 - Troubleshooting and Explaining the Citrix Universal Print Driver, UPD

This document was published at: http://support.citrix.com/kb/entry.jspa?externalID=CTX089874

Document ID: CTX089874, Created on: Oct 25, 2002, Updated: Sep 24, 2003

Products: Citrix MetaFrame XP 1.0 for Microsoft Windows 2000

MetaFrame XP Feature Release 3 and the Universal Print Driver

The new PCL5c UPD driver, based on the HP Color LaserJet 4500, is 600 dpi and supports color. The PCL4 universal driver in Feature Release 2 is the native Windows HP LaserJet Series II driver, monochrome and 300 dpi. Citrix uses an alias name so administrators will not mistakenly remove it and lose the UPD functionality.

The key HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Citrix\UniversalPrintDrivers\Driver lists the following values: PCL4;PS;PCL5c.

If you remove PCL5c, the printer is mapped as PCL4 and if you remove PCL4, the printer is mapped as PCL5c.

If you leave only PS, no printer is mapped. The “PS” universal driver is intended for use with UNIX Clients, where Postscript is the default printer control language.

You do not need a PCL-compatible printer/driver to take advantage of the PCL5c or PCL4 universal printing feature. The PCL interpreter, Pcl4rast.dll, is built into the Win32 and Macintosh Clients (version 6.20 or greater). The PCL print streams generated by these server-side drivers are interpreted by our client software and rendered locally on the client utilizing the printer drivers and operating system of the client device. To summarize, all the PCL UPDs need a working printer/driver on the client device. Local printers that are unable to support the basic features of the UPD drivers may not print correctly.

The universal drivers are installed and treated like any other Windows print driver. Feature Release 3 changes the driver list in the Management Console so the universal drivers have a special icon and tag line.

Limitations, related to the native PCL5c Windows driver that MetaFrame XP uses, may cause minor corruptions in a limited subset of documents when printed through UPD. However, the version that ships with Windows Server 2003 seems to have fewer problems. Therefore, it is advisable to have the customer upgrade their Windows 2000 server driver with the version that ships with Windows Server 2003.

Print Jobs Appear to have an Increased Size when using the UPD.

Autocreated/universal print driver (UPD) printers have a smaller print job size on a MetaFrame server, which is in PCL4/5c format. The PCL4/5c format is suitable for network transmission because of its small payload. However, when the print job reaches the client, the print job is rasterized, thus creating a larger print job. In the case of Hewlett-Packard and other native printer drivers, the print job created on the MetaFrame server is usually in EMF format but is converted to a native printer format on the client. Depending upon the efficiency and architecture of the native printer driver, the size of the EMF print job may be larger than the native format and vice versa.

When using UPD, the following steps occur:

1. The job is created in PCL format on the server by the universal print driver.

2. Data is sent to the client within an ICA virtual channel.

3. PCL data is converted into a bitmap on the client.

4. The bitmap is spooled on the local printer.

The result is that the bitmap image of PCL data in the client printer spooler is larger then the PCL data sent across the network to the client. This permits optimizing the bandwidth that is available between the client and server, but printing the job with the UPD could be slower when the print job reaches the client. The UPD is best suited for print driver management, bandwidth utilization, and autocreating client printers but does not support special printing features such as double-sided printing.

Printer Will not Autocreate Using the Universal Print Driver

1. Does removing any third-party printer drivers resolve the issue?

2. If a known server is “working” and one is “broken,” attempt to replicate/import the UPD from the working server to the non-working server.

3. Is the server licensed and the appropriate feature release level set correctly?

4. Ensure the UPD driver is installed and no policies are preventing the installation of printer drivers.

5. Ensure the Version 7.0 client is being used for the Feature Release 3 UPD and that the Pcl4rast.dll is present on the client machine.

The UPD Fails to Install and Autocreates as a LaserJet II

A few possible reasons are as follows:

1. The spooler was stopped/hung during the install.

2. The spooler service is set other than “local system” or account that is installing MetaFrame XP.

3. Console Error, Digital Signature Not Found. This is unusual because the HP LaserJet Series II driver is signed. A policy that disallows the addition of print drivers may be configured

4. There is a possible sequence in the upgrade path in MetaFrame XP.

As a failsafe, Citrix uses a built-in UPD lookup table instead of the registry. This built-in table has the PCL4 HP LaserJet Series II driver association.

Similar results may happen with MetaFrame XP Feature Release 3.

Setting the UPD for all, Except a Few Printers (FR3)

1. Select Use Universal Driver only if Native Driver is Unavailable in the Management Console.

1. Uncheck the following box:

1. For printer drivers that are never to be used, add the names of any of these drivers to this list:

4. Restrict users from adding drivers. Q239536/Q262202, Q180545, Q259574 & Q234270

Setting the UPD for all, Except a Few Printers (FR1 & FR2 Only)

1. Select Use Universal Driver only if Native Driver is Unavailable in the Management Console.

2. Select Allow only drivers in the list and add the UPD to the list.

3. For printer drivers that you want to make exceptions for, add the names of any of these drivers to this list.

4. When a user logs on with a driver name that matches a Windows 2000 native driver name and that driver name is in the "allow" list, it is autocreated and the driver is automatically installed on the server.

5. When a user logs on with a printer manufacturer's driver and the driver name doesn't match a driver on the Windows 2000 CD, but the driver name is on the "allow" list, you need to manually add the driver to the server for this printer. If this driver is not manually installed, the printer will autocreate with the UPD.

NOTE: Whenever a non-native printer driver is to be installed on the MeteaFrame server, it should be thoroughly tested before being used in a production environment. />

Troubleshooting the UPD Printing Within Applications

6. Connect a printer locally to the MetaFrame server and select the HP LaserJet Series II or current UPD alias driver in the Add Printer wizard.

7. If you cannot connect this printer to the server, browse and connect to a shared network printer and modify the driver on the Advanced tab of the Explorer’s printer properties dialog box.

8. Create an alias UPD printer and set the port as FILE, run the application, and print to the alias UPD printer.

9. Verify how the application behaves when executed on the console with the same driver that is used by the UPD.

10. Do any other similar print outputs in other applications experience the same behavior as the UPD?

11. Do print jobs from the applications experience any issues when mapped to the same driver as the client device?

12. When printing certain forms using the universal print driver, the page does not print as displayed?

Cause

The application is directly inserting PCL of its own origin into the print stream using the form overlay capability of the PCL language. The PCL form overlay feature can be accessed through an escape function provided by most PCL5 printer drivers, the 4500 driver included. It basically allows an application to insert arbitrary PCL directly into the print data stream.

Resolution

Configure the application to use strictly GDI rendering instead of PCL EscapePassThrough or the standard device driver’s instead of the universal print driver.

Can the UPD Margin Settings Be Changed?

The margins presented by the new universal driver, HP Color LaserJet 4500, are different. However, the bitmap-to-page registration algorithm is unchanged. Because Feature Release 2 uses the HP LaserJet Series II driver, the nonprintable region of a Series II printer is ¼-inch on each side of the page.

Citrix uses the UPD as a proxy driver on the server and the non-printable region of the client printer is most likely going to be different. Therefore, the real nonprintable area of the printer may be larger than that of the universal driver. A print job where the application places data on the page near the printable limit of the UPD may drop out on the printed page because it falls outside the printable limit of the underlying client printer.

More Information

Inverted printing, like a negative, with MetaFrame XP Service Pack 3/Feature Release 3 and the UPD